Rev. J. S. Martin, Secretary of the National Reform Association.
World’s Christian Citizenship Conference Preliminaries
From Our Own Correspondent
[This report, from Mr. J. R. Ferren, reaches us just as we are closing the forms. We regret that it is necessary for us to abbreviate it, but it is done in the address of Dr. Coyle, excerpts from which we will give later. More next week. Ed. S. or T.]
UNDER the auspices of the National Reform Association, the second World’s Christian Citizenship Congress, declared by the leaders of this movement to be “in many respects the most significant gathering of Christian forces thus far in history,” opened at the Multnomah Stadium, Portland, Oregon, Sunday afternoon, June 29. Fully five thousand people crowded the great amphitheater when Rev. Henry Collin Minton, of Trenton, New Jersey, president of the conference, called the conference, and invited Dr. R. C. Wylie, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to open the program with a Scripture reading. To greet the representatives gathered from many parts of the United States, and many other countries, there were present Governor West of Oregon, U. S. Judge C. E. Wolverton, Mayor Elect H. R. Albee, and County Judge T. J. Cleeton. Each of these gentlemen spoke in appreciative terms of the expected uplift morally and spiritually which may come to Portland through the influence of this Christian Citizenship Congress.
Dr. J. S. Martin, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, general secretary of the National Reform Association, in responding to the words of welcome, set forth briefly the aims of this convention. In part, he said:
“We are here this afternoon for the purpose of conferring. This is not a convention whose action is to be binding upon all who attend and participate. It is rather, as the name indicates, a conference, for the comparison of views and the mutual exchange of practical ideas of leaders of Christian thought and action the wide world over. Liberty of thought and liberty of expression within the limits of Christianity are to be granted to all who are here present. It is furthermore a citizenship conference, not an ecclesiastical conference, altho there are many distinguished ecclesiastics here. There are likewise many here who are representatives of various moral reforms and Christian organizations, not, however, as propagandists. All are here as citizens. And they are here for the purpose, as you have heard, of discussing these great moral problems with which government is all the while dealing, and of very necessity must deal; and therefore, must deal with them on some basis and according to some standard.
“It is here again, note you, a World’s Christian Citizenship Congress, as has been indicated by more than one of those whose welcome was heard. We are discussing these great problems here before us which are of concern to all of us and to the whole world, indeed not upon a materialistic basis, or an economic basis merely, nor may I say on a basis of humanitarianism, but on a distinctly Christian basis. We believe that there is one great solvent of these problems, and that is applied Christianity; and in so far as the governments of the world have to deal with these problems, that they must apply religion, the Christian religion, to these problems in order that they may ultimately and finally be solved. Moreover, this, as you will observe, is a world conference, not a sectional conference, not a national conference, but a world conference. How rapidly indeed the world is becoming one. Broad men are to-day thinking in world forms, and speaking in world terms, and acting in world’s thoughts. There is a world’s public opinion, a world’s conscience, if you will, and all civilized nations hold themselves more or less amenable to this world-directing age. We have world music, art, sanitary, and business conferences. We think that it is about time for the Christian patriots of the world to declare at one gathering such as this that the world’s greatest interests are not culture, art, etc., but the world’s greatest interests are moral and religious. We think that indeed it is about time for the Christian patriots of the world to declare that only by obedience to the moral laws of the Christian religion can even the material fabric of any country be made secure. We have felt that the time has come when the Christian patriots of the world should unite indeed in avowing their allegiance as citizens of their several countries to Him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and declare our desire and our purpose to indeed lay this whole wide world at His feet. Such is the purpose of this conference.”
“I Am for Men” was the subject of an address by the Rev. Robert F. Coyle, of Denver. He declared that the tendency of the age is to overvalue property — things — and undervalue men.
Comparison Is Drawn
“Our courts, our politicians, our journalists lean more toward the money side of things than toward the side of men and of human life. The obscure sinner against property is punished to the limit, while the capitalist who sins against human life, in mine and mill, is exonerated — and frequently honored with a seat in the legislature or in Congress.”
The Rev. U. T. McCrory, of Pittsburg, addressed the conference on the subject “Government of the People, for the People, and by the People,” reviewing some of the principles of government which have made possible the growth and development of the United States of America.
